The Light Is Different

Wherever you go, the light is different. It's different at any time of the year. Childe Hassam, and the other Impressionists knew that. They would set up canvases and paint each one of them at different times. That concept of light was driven home most decidedly when we were in Stockholm several years ago. The time was autumn. The days were shorter but the shadows were longer. And in those seven days in Stockholm the shadows were always longer. What I found each day when the sun would appear was that it never rose above what we would have considered four o'clock here in Portland at that time of the year. Four o'clock is the perfect time for making images with your camera whether it is film or digital. I loved those days in Sweden, long walking days filled with the golden yellow of its fall. In actuality it was the fall of the heritage of myself and my husband, otherwise known as "Voice from the Couch". Bless him, he thinks of himself as being all Swedish, but he's only half as am I. But those halves must have constituted a whole in the minds of the locals. They consistently addressed us as if we were one of them and knew where they wanted to go when we didn't know much more then "hej".